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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

I am a week late posting about homeschooling. When my grandma past, I could just feel that week and last week was going to be a little off track. Last week, Hezekiah did all his work I planned, but we didn't get to start school on time. Having a 9 month old baby and homeschooling can get schooling off track. I have to make sure she is fed, content, and happy, before I can start school. Or she wants to be held, and I have to hold her while schooling, which can make things difficult. I'm learning from last week that I need to just roll with all that I can't control. My goal is to start at 9:30am. If that cannot happen I will roll with it. It does no good to get frustrated over things I cannot control. The important thing is that Hezekiah is able to get all I haved planned for the week done. Talking about schdule. Even though I have a start and end of school. The great thing about homeschooling, is I'm trying to find in our whole day together ways to learn. I was going to make brownie's yesterday. My oldest, Apple and Hezekiah wanted to help. It can be so much easier to just do it myself. So I told them I was going to do it, but taking a moment of thinking I am homeschooling, I could see how Hezekiah would like seeing the ingredients mix together and get a chance to stir the brownie mix, all kids love that part. I decided to do it with them. My daughter probably thanked me 4 times that she got to help. Hezekiah loved seeing all the ingredients mixing together. If I weren't homeschooling I maybe wouldn't have took the time to let my kids help. Then I would have missed the joy in their faces.
I was doing a bible devotion yesterday on my bible app. The devotion is truth or trash for children. It gives a statement, like yesterdays was You are God's friend. Apple said truth. Hezekiah just listened to the devotion. It came to a question who is your friend? I asked Hezekiah, he said Caden. Wow, I was so amazed that he knew who is friend was and was able to verbalize his name. Then he said Everlee. It melted my heart, to hear him say his friends names on his own and not me coaching him. He knew who his friends were. With his speech difficulties, something so simple of him vandalizing something new on his own, can make my heart feel so happy. These simple moments makes me more confident in my choosing homeschooling.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

A hard start to this week. First I started this week schooling with a cold. It is rough teaching when I am sick. Actually it's tough doing anything when I'm sick. I tried my best staying on track on Monday. We spent half of the day doing crafts and practicing writing in bed. I missed A few things I needed to do that day. Like songs, and read books, and I think one other craft. I did my best that day. My husband was gone most of the day and came home in the evening with my oldest. After she got out of school, she and her dad were at the church working on the youth room. He is the new youth director at our church and he is doing a full remodel of the room. Well, when they came home he told me my grandma was in the hospital and my Uncle and Aunt are going to give the doctor permission to take her off of life support. So, my aunt and uncle were going to wait until my sister and her family came, and my family came to say goodbye to her. We had the all the kids with us in the waiting room. While they waited in the waiting room with my sister, my husband and I went to go see her. My grandma was at the hospital that morning and she fell. She bumped her head really hard. That caused swelling and bleeding in her brain. In cases like this the doctor would usually intervene and do surgery, but with her age and how fragile she was. The outcome of surgery would not turn out well either. She was put on life support, and now I had to say my goodbyes. It was a confusing time. That she was still alive, but not responsive. I told her I was blessed to have a grandma like her. She lived a life of love for Jesus. She was obedient to Him and had a trust in Him that awed me. As a little girl, she always had this strong presence about her. She was a strong women. A warrior, fighting the good fight for Jesus. She showed me how to live for Jesus as a little girl. I didn't know it then, but she is how I inspire to live my life for Christ. Trusting Jesus full heartedly. She is in heaven now, she passed this morning. I can see her now, no more pain and suffering, dancing, singing her praises to Jesus once again. She had suffered from dementia for the last three years. I will forever see her, as the strong women she was.

That happening, today was a off day too. How can one truly function 100% when lossing a family member. I got to teach most of what I needed to today. Like yesterday, we didn't sing or read books. Tomorrow, will be a better day. I feel better prepared for tomorrow. I will post my plans today and yesterday another date.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

This week we started school on a Wednesday. Labor Day was on Monday, so We took the day off and decided to go to Muir Woods National Park here in California, the state I live. It was a hour and a half drive from my house. I hoped I enjoyed my trip more. My allergies were horrible that day. Instead of staying a whole day leaving in the evening. We went into the forest for about a hour and a half and was done. The forest is huge. There are many hike trails, which we thought we could walk a few. But instead I was ready to go home and so was Hezekiah. He pretty much complained and was whining half of the time we were there. When we got to the car he was out for a nap in 10 minutes. He was tired. Poor guy.
Wednesday was great! I taught him the letter B,b. We made a Big B craft to make the B look like a Bee. ( Pictures will be posted, also web references) Hezekiah was not much into practicing his writing yesterday. I know he can trace the letter pages, but he didn't want to. I held his hand and guided his writing. Oh well, I am positive he will start doing it on his own. I taught him our next number 2, next shape, square. He was naming the markers the right colors. He was looking for the black marker for the bee craft and he surprised me and actually called it black instead of moon. That was a happy moment. Also, on tv there was a stop sign and he said red. He is knowing his colors. My heart jumps for joy! It is truly amazing seeing my son learning and verbalizing what he is learning. I pray for that every morning.
Here are my lesson plans for Wenesday and today:

Hezekiah made Noah's ark because we are learning the number 2. God told Noah to gather 2 of each animals. Hezekiah used sticker foam animals and was able to stick it on the craft like the animals are entering the boat. After that we read Noah's Ark on the Bible kids app. I highly recommend this app the stories are interactive for the kids. We made a B to look like a bee, the craft mentioned above. Then a little b look like a butterfly. He made a square friend, like last week he made his circle friend. He painted in the squares. The painting the squares, I was supposed to take painters tape and make squares out of the tape and then have him paint it and then take the tape off, but I didn't have painters tape on hand, so I just drew the squares with marker.

I thought his smiley square is adorable! I did help him guide him with tracing the squares, he was not really wanting to do it unless I helped him.

I love the library! Free resources! I got a bunch of b books. Busy Buzzy Bee to go with the bee craft. My b sound box. I really enjoy those series of books. The series have each letter of the alphabet and it is amazing because it has a bunch of words that start with the letter we are studying. A bunny book for our bunny craft tomorrow. The Bahamas to go with our flag painting for tomorrow. Bob books are great short reads for little ones. This one I got was the alphabet series. After each letter I will read the letter book that goes with the letter Hezekiah is studying. I may even buy this series, just because this series is the whole alphabet and he won't get through the whole alphabet until 24 weeks or so from now. So I Will have to keep rechecking it out. It will be easier to just have it.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Hezekiah and I made it through our first week of homeschooling preschool. It was a fulfilling, purposeful first week. I know it was purposeful for Hezekiah as well. His tantrums has gone down this week. He is enjoying learning. From day one to the last day of this week, just in a week he is tracing the letter A, a. He has a speech delay. My husband, Kyle takes him to speech therapy once every week for the last 6 months. He is trying to say new words, and using a lot more vocabulary on his own just in general throughout this week. I am super proud of him. We were outside playing chase. He would pretend to lock the path, so he would say ocked instead of locked. I will have him stop and look at my tounge placement for the letter L. He doesn't like me doing that, and gets frustrated. In his way he thinks he is saying it right. I could instead make a mental note of the phonics he is having trouble with and do a exercise of repeating those sounds in a fun game. Then it's fun for him and not discouraging to him. Also, I notice his imagination is coming out more. He is painting things I've never seen him paint before. He made a picture of a moon and stars. He made a crescent moon. The stars he pushed down on the paintbrush and it looked like stars. It was amazing to see. Thoughout the week, we do a morning routine, pledge of alligence, pray, sing the alphabet song, calendar, time, and write his name on the writeboad. I write each letter in his name and he tries to find it in the alphabet, that is on top of the write board I have. Then I write the letter of the week. Here is my lesson plans for this week.

Pictures from this week

I traced his hand and part of his arm to make a trunk for the Apple tree. Then I drew a's to look like apples. He glued the pieces together and glued the a's on the tree.

I prepared tracing A, a, circle, and the number 1, the night before school.

Hezekiah tracing the letter A

After the letter of the week is done, he gets to paint a wooden cut out of the letter to hang in his room for an alphabet boarder.

I have come so far from my journey of healing since starting this blog. I found a great church that I feel loved and welcomed at. I was meeting the woman's director every week for a year. She has helped me grow in my relationship with Jesus. I am confident in my relationship with Jesus. Through Jesus I am not broken, I am righteous in God's eyes. I am his Masterpiece. He made no mistakes when he made me "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10 With this new found way of thinking, I am starting a new journey of homeschooling. I want to use this blog to keep track of crafts, projects, curriculum, daily schedule, etc. To help anyone that may need resources for their homeschooling journey. I have three children. Right now, I decided to homeschool my middle child, Hezekiah he is 4 years old. We started school two days ago. His first day went really well. I drew him an American flag and he colored it in. Then we said the pledge of allegiance, prayed, made an letter A craft to look like an alligator, made an ant craft, practice cutting a straight line using scissors, sang head, shoulders, knees, and toes, read Chicka Chicka 123, played outside and then it was time for nap at 1:30p. We started at 9:30a. It was a great first day.

About Me

My name is Jennifer. I am 30 year old. I am a wife and a mother of 3. I have found healing from depression and anxiety through Christ Jesus. He is my greatest friend. He is walking with me through a journey in homeschooling.